Heiss was blocked from internet forum

A GERMAN man who denies murdering a Stowmarket student has spoken of his frustration at being blocked from an internet forum supervised by his alleged victim.

David Heiss, 21, told Nottingham Crown Court yesterday how he had been blocked by some members of Warscentral.com, a war games website run by Matthew Pyke and his girlfriend Joanna Witton.

Heiss said he was quite upset that Miss Witton, who he was said to be obsessed with, had blocked him and he did not think it was justified.

In a conversation Heiss had with another forum user he allegedly said he hated to blackmail Miss Witton, but that was the only way he had of talking to her.

Shaun Smith QC, prosecuting, asked Heiss what was he blackmailing Miss Witton with.

Heiss, from Limburg, near Frankfurt, told the court: "At some point I said if they didn't try to resolve this, then I would come back."

Mr Smith asked Heiss "You were going to blackmail her with coming back to Nottingham if you didn't resolve it?"

Heiss, speaking to the court in English, said: "Unfortunately, yes."

Mr Smith asked Heiss why Miss Witton and Mr Pyke, both aged 20, would be so scared of Heiss coming back to Nottingham if they did not unblock him on the forum.

Heiss said: "I'm not saying they would have been scared. I had given a promise not to see Jo again.

"Unfortunately I had to go that far because they didn't want to talk to me. At some point they were not going to listen to me anymore and they blocked me.

"At some point I simply couldn't think of anything else to persuade them to talk to me other than to blackmail them."

The jury has heard that Miss Witton had asked Heiss on one of his surprise visits to Nottingham last year to get counselling and to get over her.

The prosecution alleges Heiss returned to Mr Pyke's flat in North Sherwood Street, Nottingham, on September 19 last year and stabbed Mr Pyke to death.

The court has heard the former Stowmarket High School pupil suffered 86 stab wounds.

The trial continues